Marx and Religion

Marx’s views on religion solely explain the basic functions of religion and his thoughts on the capitalist regime are destined to be bias against capitalism because of the very nature of his political beliefs. His quote however can be taken in a different way.

What I believe the statement could mean is that religion will only vanish when everything can be explained by scientific fact. This isn’t a Marxist argument however; it’s an argument which can be simplified to Science vs. Religion. This grudge match has been the crux of many topical debates over the last couple of centuries however one side in the western world particularly seems to be reigning supreme, that side being science. A vain attempt to mix the two together was spawned in the south of America, called creationism but that was met with ridicule by anyone who had half a brain.

Religion and Science remain on opposing sides which to an extent I believe to be true. However one aspect which I believe to be a major similarity of these two perspectives is faith. A scientist will criticize a practitioner of religion of being ignorant of the facts that the scientist has brought to the world but also how the only way someone who follows religion can back up and justify their beliefs is by saying that they have faith. The scientist will see faith as an excuse and a lazy way of saying they have no proof.

Faith though isn’t something exclusive to religion, as an atheist myself, faith plays a major part in my life. For example, when travelling abroad I travel by airplane. I get on this contraption with no knowledge of how it works or why it works, if it has been inspected thoroughly by a trained engineer or even if it will explode. I have no evidence that it won’t but I have faith that it will fly, that a trained engineer has done his job properly and that it won’t explode, faith in a system is no different to fait in God. Both involve faith in a power that is higher than you. For some reason a scientist will except this type of faith but not the faith involved in religion.

Religion is something that is different to science and always will be, but an atheist can’t always hide behind science to disprove religion. I have no idea how gravity works, or Newton’s laws, or even relativity but I still believe them to be true. I have faith in science and is that much different to having faith in a God/ Gods? Neither me nor my pastor have the knowledge to justify our claims on how the universe was created, but we both have theories on how it happened and we both have faith in men we’ve never met. Be it Jesus Christ or Georges Lemaitre.

This draws me to the conclusion that Science and Religion is Science and Religion and not Science Vs Religion. Both can exist whilst the other exists. Marx’s statement can be seen as true on a basic level but not in a more complex setting which is more true to real life, he focuses on the aspects of religion that affect his view on politics and not much else.